Sliding pocket doors are commonly employed architectural features that offer a way to provide a door for an opening in a confined space that would not permit a traditional swinging door.
Pocket doors require the construction of an effectively false or hollow wall that contains a cavity (i.e.: a “pocket”) that can fully receive the sliding door in the opened position so that door is hidden from view. Given the additional complexity that a pocket door presents commercial and residential builders, a number of prefabricated pocket door kits have been developed that can be quickly installed without requiring that a carpenter or skilled craftsman design, measure, cut, build and install the frame components on a job-by-job, custom basis.
Moreover, given that door openings can come in a variety of widths, a number of adjustable width pocket door frames have been developed that can accommodate sliding pocket doors of a number of widths. In this way, a single pocket door frame kit can be used for a number of applications where the opening in question is of differing widths.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,494,076 to Todd discloses an adjustable pocket door frame. However, Todd does not disclose an adjustable-width pocket door frame that is fully collapsible without requiring significant disassembly and as such the shipping, storage and retailing costs of an adjustable pocket door frame as disclosed by Todd would be significant.
US Patent Application No. 2014/0075863 to Laronde also discloses an adjustable pocket door frame. However, Laronde does not disclose an adjustable-width pocket door frame that is fully collapsible without requiring significant disassembly and as such the shipping, storage and retailing costs of an adjustable pocket door frame as disclosed by Laronde would also be significant.
Finally, Canadian Patent Application No. 2,788,914 to William et al. also discloses another version of an pre-assembled adjustable pocket door frame. However and similar to Laronde and Todd as discussed above, William does not disclose an adjustable-width pocket door frame that is fully collapsible without requiring significant disassembly and as such the shipping, storage and retailing costs of an adjustable pocket door frame as disclosed by William et al would also be significant.
Therefore, each of Todd, William et al. and Laronde disclose preassembled pocket door frames that do not completely disassemble in order to create the smallest possible packaged state which results in significant shipping costs and further requires significant storage and retail space.
Accordingly, there is a need for a preassembled pocket door frame that can be quickly and easily installed onsite and which can be collapsed into the smallest possible packaged state in order to reduce shipping, storage and retailing costs.